Privacy policy

Dear user,

Protecting your privacy is important to us. Below, we explain how we process your personal data when you use our website.

1 Information about the collection of personal data

(1) In the following we explain how personal data is collected when you use our website. Personal data is defined as all data relating to you personally, e.g. name, address, email addresses, user behaviour.

(2) The data controller pursuant to Art. 4 Par. 7 of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is

(3) When you contact us by email or via a contact form, we store the data you share with us (your email address, your name and your telephone number, if applicable) so that we can respond to your inquiry. We will erase the data thereby produced once its storage is no longer necessary, or we will limit its processing if legal retention obligations apply.

(4) If we use contracted providers to deliver specific aspects of our service, or if we want to use your data for promotional purposes, we will inform you in detail below about the respective processes. We also list the specified criteria for the storage duration.

(5) The connection is encrypted using SSL technology in order to prevent unauthorised third parties from accessing your personal data.

2 The collection of personal data when you visit our website

When you use the website for informational purposes only, i.e. when you do not register or share information with us in any other way, we only collect the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. If you view our website, we gather the following data that is required for technical reasons in order to display our website to you and to ensure the website’s stability and security (the legal basis is Art. 6 Par. 1 Point f GDPR). The following general data and information is stored in the log-files on the server:

IP address

date and time of query

Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Content of the request (specific page)

Access status/HTTP status code

Volume of data transmitted in each case

Website from which the request comes

Browser

Operating system and its interface

Language and version of the browser software.

Your IP address is stored as part of a log protocol for a maximum of 30 days.

When using this general data and information, we do not draw any conclusions about you. The data on the server log-files is stored separately from all the personal data you submit.

3 Your rights

(1) You have the following rights against us with regard to the personal data relating to you:

the right to receive informationpursuant to Art. 15 GDPR in conjunction with Section 34 German Data Protection Act (BDSG).

the right to rectificationpursuant to Art. 16 GDPR.

the right to erasure arisingfrom 17 GDPR in conj. with Section 35 BDSG.

the right to restrict processingpursuant to Art. 18 GDPR.

theright to data portability arisingfrom Art. 20 GDPR.

the right to lodge a complaintwith the competent data protection supervisory authority pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR in conj. with Section 19 BDSG. If you would like to exercise this right, you can lodge your complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.

the right to object pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR.

4 Objecting to or revoking consent to the processing of your data

(1) If you have given your consent to the processing of your data, you can revoke that consent at any time. Revoking consent in this way affects the admissibility of processing your personal data from the point in time you communicate that to us.

(2) In cases where we base the processing of your personal data on a balancing of interests, you can file an objection to this data processing. This is the case in particular if the processing is not necessary to fulfil a contract we have with you, which we outline in the following description of functions. If you exercise this right to object, we would ask that you explain your reasons why we should not process your personal data as performed by us. If you do submit an objection with reasons, we will review the situation and will either cease with/adjust the data processing, or demonstrate our compelling grounds worthy of protection, on the basis of which we continue to process the data.

You have the right not to be subject to a decision made solely on the basis of automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affecting you. This does not apply if the decision is required for concluding or performing a contract between us, or if it is authorised by Union or Member State law to which we are subject and these legal provisions also lay down suitable measures to safeguard your rights, freedoms and legitimate interests, or is based on your explicit consent.

If the decision is required for concluding or performing a contract, or is based on your explicit consent, we will implement suitable measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms and your legitimate interests, at least the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the data controller, to express your point of view and to contest the decision.

You can contact us at any time if you would like to exercise your rights regarding automated decisions.

As a responsible company, we do not make use of automated decision-making or profiling.

6 Storage duration

Where the erasure periods of specific data are not explicitly stated in the respective section of this privacy policy, we will erase your personal data in accordance with the applicable legal retention periods or when the purpose for which we stored your data no longer applies. The data is erased as a matter of routine when the period expires, unless it is required to perform or initiate a contract.

7 Additional functions and offerings on our website

(1) In addition to the use of our website solely for informational purposes, we also offer a range of services you can use if you wish. To do so, you will, as a rule, need to submit additional personal data, which we use to provide the respective service and for which the above-named data protection policies apply.

(2) In some cases we commission external service providers to process your data. These service providers are carefully selected and are commissioned by us. They are bound to follow our instructions and are subject to regular checks.

(3) Furthermore, we can pass on your personal data to third parties if we offer opportunities to participate in promotions, to conclude contracts or similar services in partnership with other providers. You will find more information on this when you submit your personal data, or below in the description of the offer.

(4) If our service providers or partners are headquartered in a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will inform you of the implications of this in the description of the offer.

8 External links

On our website, we use links that lead to other websites (external links); these links are specially marked. The content of these linked sites is not stored on our server. The external content of these links was checked when the link was created. However, it is possible that the content has since been changed by the respective provider. Should you find that the content of these external websites breaks applicable laws, please let us know. This privacy policy only applies to content on our website.

9 Use of cookies

(1) In addition to the data listed above, when you use our website, cookies are stored on your computer. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your hard drive; they are assigned to the browser you use and pass on certain information to the party that placed the cookie (in this case, us). Cookies cannot run any programs or carry viruses to your computer. They help make the provision of the website more user-friendly and effective.

(2) Use of cookies:

a) This website uses the following kinds of cookies (their scope and manner of functioning is explained below):

Transient cookies (see b)

Persistent cookies (see c).

b) Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close the browser. These include, in particular, session cookies, which store a so-called session ID, with which various requests made by your browser can be ascribed to the same session. This means your computer can be recognised when you return to our website. The session cookies are deleted when you log out or close the browser.

c) Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period that differs according to the cookie. You can delete the cookies in your browser’s security settings at any time.

d) You can configure your browser settings the way you want them, e.g. you can prevent third-party cookies or all cookies from being placed on your computer. You should be aware that you may not be able to use all the functions of this website if you do so.

10 Use of Google Analytics

(1) This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer and that make it possible to analyse your use of the website. The information created by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. If IP anonymization has been activated on this website, your IP address is truncated by Google within the member states of the European Union or within other member states of the European Economic Area beforehand. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Working on behalf of this website’s operator, Google will use this information to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports about the website activities and to provide additional services linked to the use of the website and the use of the internet for the website operator.

(2) Google does not link the IP address transmitted from your browser as part of Google Analytics with any other data

(3) You can prevent cookies from being stored on your computer by adjusting the settings in your browser software. However, you should be aware that if you do so, you may not be able to use all the functions of this website in their entirety. Furthermore, you can prevent the data produced by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) from being gathered and transmitted to Google, and prevent this data from being processed by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plugin that is available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

(4) This website uses Google Analytics in combination with the add-on _anonymizedIP.This ensures that your IP address is truncated before processing, and that data cannot be linked to any individual. If it does become possible to identify you individually as a result of the data collected, the personal data is deleted without delay, eliminating the possibility of making a connection.

(5) We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website and to allow us to regularly improve it. The statistics we gather make it possible for us to improve our service offering and to make it more interesting for you, the user. For exceptional cases in which personal data is transmitted to the USA, Google has signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is Art. 6 Par. 1 Point f GDPR.

(1) We have embedded YouTube videos into our website. These videos are stored on http://www.YouTube.com and can be viewed directly on our website. (These are all included in the “expanded data protection mode”, meaning that no data about you as the user is transmitted to YouTube unless you watch the videos. Only when you play the videos is the data listed in Paragraph 2 transmitted. We have no control over this data transmission.)

(2) When you visit the website, YouTube receives the information that you have viewed the corresponding subpage on our website. Furthermore, the data listed in Section 2 of this policy is transmitted. This happens regardless of whether you are logged in to a YouTube user account, or whether there is no user account. If you are logged in with Google, your data is assigned directly to your account. If you do not want your visit to be linked to your YouTube profile, you must log out before you activate the play button. YouTube stores your data as user profiles, and uses it for purposes relating to advertising, market research and/or the needs-based design of its website. This analysis is carried out specifically (even for users who are not logged in) to deliver targeted advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of these user profiles: please contact YouTube if you wish to exercise this right.

(3) You’ll find further information on the purpose and extent of data collection and processing carried out by YouTube in the privacy policy, where you will also find further information on your rights and settings options to protect your privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB&gl=de. YouTube also processes your personal data in the USA and has signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.